Committee of Public Safety

The Committee of Public Safety was the de facto executive government of the French First Republic from April 1793 to 1795 during the Reign of Terror. The committee's job was to protect France from foreign invasion and from internal rebellion, and it became more and more powerful as the threat of foreign invasion and counter-revolution grew. In July 1793, the Jacobin Club replaced the Girondins as the dominant party in the National Convention, and the Convention gave executive power to the committee in December 1793, effectively making committee leader Maximilien Robespierre the dictator of France. In July 1794, after Robespierre made it easier to accuse and execute alleged enemies of the state, the moderate Thermidorians rose up against him and had Robespierre and the radical Jacobins executed in the "Thermidorian Reaction", and the committee was disestablished in 1795.